How To Play Guitar: The Minor Pentatonic Scale

What's up future rock-stars!!!
Are you ready to learn your first scale?

The first scale we are going to take a look at is called the Minor Pentatonic scale.
In normal music courses you would learn the Major Scale first, because pretty much all other scales in western music are derived from it. However I prefer learning the Pentatonics first because they only contain 5 notes, so they are easier to learn, but, more importantly, they are used in an ENORMOUS amount of songs and music genres. I daresay 90% of rock and blues songs use the pentatonics.

Theory
We are going to start with a tiny amount of theory. As I’ve said before, pretty much every scale used in western music is derived from the Major Scale. The Minor Pentatonic scale is no exception. We are going to discuss this scale, and the reason it is called Minor Pentatonic, by using a simple formula and comparing it to the Major Scale.

(For this I am going to use the A Minor Pentatonic as an example.)

The Major Scale formula is very simple: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
These are the degrees of the scale, for the A Major Scale that would translate too:
1   2   3   4   5    6   7   1
A   B  C#  D   E   F# G# A

Now let's have a look at the Minor Pentatonic’s formula: 1 b3 4 5 b7 1
You probably notice two things; one, the scale only contains 5 different notes, the 2^nd and 6^th degree are missing, and two, the 3^rd and 7^th degree are flattened. If you look at just the 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th degree, you get the all too familiar formula of a Minor Chord: 1 b3 5…Hence the name, minor pentatonic. As you may have guessed, this scale goes very well together with chord progressions that start with a Minor Chord.

If we translate the formula to our A Minor Pentatonic scale, we get:
1   b3   4    5   b7    1
A   C    D     E   G     A

Practice
Alright, that was it for theory, now it’s time to actually learn the scale on the guitar.
We are going to do so by dividing the entire neck of the guitar into 5 positions.
I want you to learn each position, one position at the time. Practice by first playing each note of one position up and down, and then improvise a bit in that position. When you feel comfortable with it, start practicing the next position up and then, and then improvise using both position. Do this until you have learned all 5 positions. And then you can start practicing it in different keys as well.

Here is a picture of all 5 positions spread out over the entire fretboard in the key of A minor. If you want to play it in different keys, all you have to do is move the positions over so the Root notes correspond to the key you want to play in.

It Could look a little something like this:

The Major Pentatonic
We are going to finish this lesson with a quick word about the Major Pentatonic.
Now its formula looks a bit different then the Minor Pentatonic, it goes: 1 2 3 5 6 1
However, there is a very strong correlation with the Minor Pentatonic scale. In fact, the A Minor Pentatonic scale, is EXACTLY the same as the C Major Pentatonic scale, the only difference is the A Minor Pentatonic scale has the note A minor as root, while the C Major Pentatonic scale has the note C as root. Get it?
A Minor Pentatonic: A C D E G A
C Major Pentatonic: C D E G A C

 Crazy right? By learning 5 simple positions, you not only know every Minor Pentatonic scale, but you also know every Major Pentatonic scale as well. That's a huge amount of writing and improvisation possibilities!

When we will get deeper into this stuff, you will see that a scale gets its name and character by the chords it interacts with. All chords and scales have a relation with each other and a musician used these relations to convey certain emotions through music. For example, our all too familiar C major scale (Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do) has, just like every major scale, a happy feel. But if you play that scale over a Dm Chord, the scale's “feel” completely changes, it becomes a Minor Scale known as the Dorian Modes, and it feels pretty grim and sad, kind of scary…That's the magic of chord-scale relations.

I know a lot of people get scared off by theory, but as you can see, it is actually pretty simple and some knowledge of what is happening and why will help your creativity. I'll be honest, I started looking into this stuff three years ago and, with absolutely NO previous experience of music theory, I was confused because I couldn't really find a decent source of information that explained it for what it is. But, with persistence and an eager mind I started to get the big picture, and now I am sharing it with you in, I hope, the most comprehensible way possible.

This lesson was a bit of a long one, but way to stick it out, patience and persistence are the key here, good luck.
If you have any questions, e-mail them to: thenoobguitarist@gmail.com.
Don’t forget to listen and have fun!!!